“So, we have time?”
He smiled. “Yeah, got time. Whataya have in mind?”
“You need a few reminders,” she stated firmly.
“Do I?”
She pressed her mouth to his ear and breathed, “Yes, you do.”
“An’ you’re gonna give ‘em to me?”
“No one better to give them to you other than me.”
He snorted. “Then what the fuck you waitin’ for?”
She snagged his earlobe firmly between her teeth and tugged. And that shit wasn’t gentle at all.
He smiled.
His Brooke was back.
Dex did a double-take when he walked into the meeting room. Diesel sat at the far end of the table where the prez normally sat with a tiny Violet tucked into the crook of his arm.
She looked like a miniature doll next to his huge muscles. She also looked innocently unaware of being surrounded by pure brute and solid tattoos as she slept.
“What the fuck?” Dex asked as he grabbed a seat a couple of chairs down from him.
D shot him a glare. “Gotta keep it down,” he grumbled, checking on his daughter to make sure her eyes were still shut.
“Where the hell is Jewel?” And why did D have his less-than-a-week old baby in his arms?
“Probably in The Iron Horse downing a bottle of whiskey,” Ace said in a loud whisper as he walked into the room. He approached D and held out his hands, offering to take his grandbaby.
Diesel just shook his head. It didn’t seem like he wanted his father to take his child.
Z came in next, stopped short, closed his gaping jaw and sat to D’s left. “Where’s my gavel?”
“Ain’t hittin’ that thing on the table an’ wakin’ ‘er up.”
Z snorted loudly and D shot him a glare. Z’s brows rose and he lifted his palms in surrender. “Okay.”
Hawk wandered in next, stutter-stepped when his gaze landed on his younger brother. He was the next to approach him, his hands out offering to take Violet.
D shook his head again, “No.”
Dex asked, “Have either of you got to hold ‘er yet?”
“Fuck no,” Ace grumbled quietly.
“Nope,” Hawk said with a frown, pulling out the chair next to D carefully so the legs wouldn’t squeal against the floor. “Gonna have to steal ‘er away when her private security detail ain’t holdin’ her. Which seems to be all the time.”
“She gonna be in here the whole time?” Z asked. “’Cause we got business to talk ‘bout.”
“Yeah, an’ you know club biz ain’t women’s biz,” Dex stated softly with a smirk. “Even if she’s only five days old.”
D grunted in answer.
“Is Jewel takin’ her before we start?” Ace asked his youngest son.
“Nope. I’m watchin’ her.”
Ace blew out a breath and leaned back in his chair, scrubbing a hand down his salt-and-pepper beard. “Can’t watch her every second of the day. She needs her momma.”
“Jewelee gets Vi when she’s hungry.”
“The way you’re actin’, woulda thought she came outta your vagina, D,” Jag said.
Hawk’s lips twitched. “Jesus Christ. Never thought I’d see the day...”
Jewel poked her head into the open doorway. “Baby, can I have her now?”
“No. Shut the fuckin’ door.”
Dex met Z’s eyes. “We’re seriously gonna have a fuckin’ meetin’ with an infant in our enforcer’s arms. What the fuck has happened to this fuckin’ club?”
Z dropped his gaze to the table and his whole body quaked silently as he shook his head.
“Might as well go grab Baby Z, too, an’ they can have a fuckin’ play date while we talk business,” Jag griped.
Ace made a noise and Dex looked over at him. He was laughing, too.
“Might as well get rid of the fuckin’ pool table an’ set up playpens an’ shit. Bottles of titty milk instead of Jack. Get Nash to start playin’ nursery rhymes. Fuck,” Dex grabbed his balls. “We’re turnin’ into a bunch of bitches.”
“Shut up, Dex. Call the meetin’ to fuckin’ order, then,” D muttered, fussing with the purple blanket that was wrapped around Violet.
From the little Dex could see of her, she had an almost full head of dark hair, which shouldn’t surprise anyone between Jewel and D. But he wondered what her eye color was. Blue like Jewel’s or brown like D’s. It was probably too early to tell yet.
He was right when he told Brooke the tree was now twisted. With Violet’s birth, the founding members’ genes had been officially combined. Ivy and Jag’s kid would combine the Doc/Bear lines as well.
He wondered if Doc or Bear ever considered that they’d eventually be related by blood. It had been a while since he’d visited Doc at Greene, maybe he should do that and ask him. He had a feeling his grandfather would be tickled pink... or purple.
Then suddenly a stink rose up that made Dex’s eyes water. “What the fuck?”
Hawk shot to his feet and moved down the table. Z’s gaze dropped to Violet and then up to D.
“Now what?” Jag asked. “Gonna change her right her in the middle of the meetin’ table? But, fuck, that shit’s just nasty. Jesus Christ.”
D rose to his feet, walked to the door, opened it and yelled, “Jewelee, come get your kid.” The baby’s wail as well as the eye-watering stink trailed out the door with him.
Jag snorted. “Figures.”
“Tell her to bring some air freshener or somethin’,” Hawk yelled out, his complexion a bit green.
“Gotta get used to that, son,” Ace said, laughing. “Gonna soon have a shittin’ machine in your house, too.”
“An’ that’s why I got Kiki.”
“Kiki ain’t gonna let you not change diapers,” Ace said.
Hawk shot a look at Z. “Z don’t change ‘em.”
Z smiled and shrugged. “Do it wrong a few times, a couple disasters later, an’ they’ll never ask again.”
D came back in the room and shut the door behind him.
“No air freshener? Ain’t no windows in here,” Hawk muttered.
“Let’s get this shit over with,” D said, settling his bulk back into a chair with a grunt.
“Meetin’ called to order,” Z announced and pounded his fist on the table.
Chapter Fifteen
Brooke sat on a stool at the private bar in church, staring at the closed door of the meeting room. They’d been in there longer than she expected. How long could it take for Dex to lay out the evidence and for them to decide what to do with Pierce?
She sighed and glanced over at Jewel who was sitting on what looked like a brand-new couch along one of the walls. There was a hand-written sign pinned above it that read, “No skanks allowed.”
She laughed and moved over to sit down next to her, watching her nurse Violet. “Is it creepy that I’m sitting next to you while you nurse?”
Jewel grinned. “No. It doesn’t bother me. Now if Grizz,” she lifted her chin to a weathered, grey-haired man who was sitting at the end of the bar, nursing a beer, “decided to plunk himself down beside me and stare, then I might get a little creeped out.”
“How’s your husband with the baby?”
Jewel turned her blue eyes to Brooke. “Ol’ man. When we got together I was told,” she dropped her voice and grunted, “No rings, no weddin’s, no babies. I fucked up the last part.”
“You don’t mind that he doesn’t want to marry you?”
Jewel carefully lifted one shoulder, not enough to disturb the nursing baby. “Nope. A piece of paper isn’t going to make him a good husband or father.”
“Is he?”
“What?”
“A good father.”
Jewel tilted her head, then stared down at the baby. She ran a hand over Violet’s dark, downy soft hair. With a gentle smile she whispered, “Yeah, surprisingly he is. So far.”
“So far?”
“Well, so far she only sleep
s, eats and shits. But I have to say he watches Violet sleep almost all night. He’s gotten no sleep since she’s been born because he’s constantly checking to make sure she’s still breathing. I swear almost every fifteen minutes. And if it wasn’t dangerous, he’d probably want her to sleep in bed with us. Between you and me,” Jewel adjusted Violet in her arms, “I think he can’t believe he created something so beautiful and not a beast like him.”
Brooke wondered about that “beast” comment. “Well, you helped, too.”
Jewel smiled down at Violet as her little bow shaped mouth sucking intensely. “Yeah,” she breathed.
A loud roar could be heard through the closed door, making them both freeze.
Suddenly looking pale, Jewel whispered, “Oh shit. The beast.”
A shiver slid through Brooke. The door to the meeting room was flung open with a bang and a very pissed off, red-faced enormous man lumbered through it at a fast clip.
Diesel stomped to the middle of the room like he was King Kong and Brooke waited for him to beat his fists on his chest, but instead he pointed a big finger at Jewel. “Take her home. Stay there. Ryder will be there waitin’. Got me?”
“D...” She quickly tucked her breast away and placed Violet against her shoulder, patting the baby on the back as she rose to her feet.
“No lip, woman! Go.”
“But—”
“Get gone.” He turned to Brooke and snarled, “You, too.” Before Brooke could answer, he turned and roared, “Find the fucker. Get ‘im here now. NOW! Get everyone here. No excuses. Gonna vote.”
“Jesus, D, you have to calm down,” Jewel stated as she gathered the diaper bag and the baby’s things.
Brooke noticed a man with darker skin and long, straight black hair running down the steps. As he hit the bottom, his eyes landed on Jewel and the baby. He moved quickly over to them to help her.
“I’ll take her home,” he stated to D who looked like a highly annoyed bull ready to rush a bull fighter waving a red cape.
“No. Need you here. Doin’ a vote,” Hawk muttered at the same time texting on his phone. He looked up and said. “Text Nash, Rig and Crash. Tell ‘em to get here now. I just texted Linc, Moose an’ Dawg.”
“What’s this about?” the other man asked.
“Time to strip someone of ‘is colors,” Hawk muttered.
“Fuck,” the darker man muttered, then his onyx-colored eyes landed on Brooke in surprise. But before he could move closer, his gaze bounced to someone behind her.
She knew exactly who when Dex’s hand landed on her shoulder. She turned to face him. “Guess that went over smoothly.”
“Fuck, thought he was going to flip the fucking table. That table’s gotta weigh five hundred pounds. It’s all hand carved wood.”
“He didn’t take the news well. Apparently,” she murmured as she watched Diesel cautiously.
“Fuck no.”
Brooke glanced around the large room. “Where’s Zak?”
Dex just shook his head.
“Is he okay, at least?”
“If you just found out you got stabbed in the back... No, that was worse than a fuckin’ stabbin’. Ten fuckin’ years in prison, babe. Ten.” Dex blew out a breath and shook his head. “Ten fuckin’ years of his life gone because of Pierce.”
“My mom had to look at her reminder for thirty years.”
His brown eyes landed on her. “Babe, said this before... doubt she blamed you. Loved you. Z lived in concrete cell away from everyone he ever cared about.”
She slipped a palm under his cut and planted it on his chest. “I know. There’s no comparison. Sorry.”
As she watched the caramel-colored skinned man with the gorgeously high cheekbones escort Jewel out of the back door, she asked, “Is he a club member? I met him the morning of the club run, right?” He wore a DAMC cut, but still...
“Crow? Yeah.”
Crow. That’s right. “He’s Native American.”
“Half. Yeah.”
As the door shut behind them, Brooke glanced up at Dex. “Isn’t that a little odd?”
“What?”
Brooke shook her head. “Nothing. Never mind.” She was glad to see their biker club was accepting of people of different ethnicities, but it seriously surprised her. When she had done quick research online about motorcycle clubs, it seemed that the white bikers stuck with their own, as did the black bikers, the Latinos, and so on. She hadn’t noticed any mixing of races.
She was pleased to see that information was wrong.
Or maybe the DAMC was just different. More accepting. Who knew. That wasn’t an issue to discuss at this time.
There was something currently more pressing.
“I can only assume this vote is about Pierce,” she murmured as she glanced around the large common area. Diesel, Hawk, and Jag were talking with the older man, who had his head hanging and was shaking it, his fists clenched on the bar.
“Yeah.”
“Then I guess I’ll settle in and wait.” As she moved toward the couch where Jewel had been nursing Violet, he reached out and grabbed her wrist, halting her on the spot.
“Babe... You gotta go.”
She stared down at his hand around her wrist, making him quickly release her. “What do you mean? I’m not going anywhere.”
“Yeah, babe. Can’t be here during our meetin’.”
“Why not?”
Dex visibly braced. “Talked about this. ’Cause you’re a woman.”
She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Wow,” she whispered.
“Way it is. Ain’t gonna change.”
The back door opened and Crow, along with three other bikers walked in.
“Tell you what, go up to my room. Soon as the meetin’s over I’ll come get you, yeah?”
“I want to face him, Dex.”
“Know it. Not sure what’s gonna happen. Z is...” Dex inhaled sharply. “D... Ace... I mean, never thought... this shit...” He ground the heels of his palms into his eye sockets.
She grabbed his cut and gave it a little shake. “I know. It has to be difficult. It’s devastating to find out one of your own could be this... horrific. It’s shaken your club to the core.”
“Yeah, babe. That’s puttin’ it mildly. So need you to not gimme any shit an’ head upstairs since I know you won’t go back to the motel willingly.”
She studied him. The pain from the betrayal was evident in his eyes. Glancing around the room as more bikers gathered, she could see the anger and betrayal felt by all of them.
The room crackled with it.
She nodded. “Fine. I’ll wait for you in your room.”
“Gotta promise me you’re gonna stay there no matter what you hear.”
Her eyes widened. “Dex...”
“Promise me that an’ I’ll promise to fill you in afterward. Later.” He reached into his pocket and pulled something out.
She stared at the set of keys he held. His Harley key and a couple others, but the one he held up between his fingers was his room key.
She couldn’t believe she was going to give up this easily and do as he suggested without a fight. But he didn’t need extra stress on top of what was already a tense situation.
And she didn’t need to challenge him in front of his club brothers. That would get them both nowhere except irritated.
She slid her palm over his warm chest, over his nipple, traced the piercing through this shirt with the tip of her finger, then cupped his cheek. “Fine. We’ll talk afterward.”
She didn’t miss him visibly relax at her answer and he leaned over, whispering, “Thanks, babe,” against her lips before kissing her quickly, and pressing his keys into her hand.
With a slight nod and a sigh, she turned and trudged up the steps to his room.
Diesel stood in front of the bar next to Hawk. Z would normally be calling a church meeting to order but Dex could see Z standing behind the bar struggling to keep his shit together.
&
nbsp; He wasn’t the only one struggling. D was an over-stretched wire ready to snap. Ace stood close to Z, probably to make sure he didn’t leap over the bar, strangle Pierce to death and then end up back in that concrete box for the rest of his life. Those ten years had been enough.
Actually, more than enough.
As VP, Hawk took over, but he was even having a tough time masking the fury on his face.
Before Pierce had arrived, clueless on what the fuck was going on, D had instructed Moose and Linc to stand at the back of the room, guarding the door. Not to keep anyone out. Fuck no. To keep Pierce in. Once he heard why this emergency meeting was called, he might just bolt.
Dex would, if he was him.
But he wasn’t and he’d never be. Pierce had no sense of not only loyalty but decency.
As Dex stood toward the back of the crowd, his gaze bounced over his brothers. He could never fuck any of them over. His loyalty remained true. This room was full of family.
And you just didn’t fuck over family. Blood or not.
Dex caught a glimpse of Crow who stood against a wall, his knee cocked, his foot planted firmly on the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. And his dark eyes were pinned on Pierce.
Something was up with him. When D explained to some of the members what the meeting was about before Pierce arrived, Crow had gotten quiet. More than usual. He’d actually gone behind the bar to down two double shots of Jack before wiping his hand across his mouth and heading to the other side of the room, his jaw tight, his eyes hard.
The man had been seething ever since. But it was more than the fact that Pierce had fucked over Z. No, Crow’s expression had turned to granite when D mentioned the diary pages and the evidence about Brooke’s mother being raped.
Something about that discovery had cut Crow deep.
Dex just didn’t know what. Though the act of rape should bother each and every one of them—and it did— this was something more.
“This ain’t gonna be a meetin’ like you all expected,” Hawk yelled out, standing on a metal milk crate so he could be heard easily. “There’s a member among us who’s done some heinous shit.”
A grumble went through the room.
Down & Dirty: Dex (Dirty Angels MC Book 8) Page 17
